


Shine Bright Like a Diamond

by talesofstories



Category: Soul Eater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 13:45:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16160120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talesofstories/pseuds/talesofstories
Summary: Things are disappearing around Death City. It isn't a problem until it is.





	Shine Bright Like a Diamond

“Soul?” Maka wandered into the living room, where her weapon had been sitting dressed and ready for the party at Kid’s place for a half hour now. Not that he was counting. “Have you seen my earrings anywhere?”

“The ones you’re holding in your hand?”

“No, these are my hoops. I can’t find the dangly ones.”

“And the hoops won’t work because . . . ?”

“Because the dangly ones sparkle more and work better with this outfit. And because Liz gave them to me and I want her to see me wearing them.”

Soul resigned himself to joining the search and slowly rolled to his feet. “I haven’t seen them. Where were they last?”

Twenty minutes later, Soul and Maka left the apartment. They were late for the party, their apartment was a disaster zone, and hoops swung mockingly from Maka’s ears.

* * *

"Liz! Patty!" Kid's cry was laced with panic, and his weapons raced to the palatial bathroom where he was getting ready for school. There, they found their meister hunched over, his forehead against the cool marble of the vanity as he stared with unseeing eyes at the bathroom tile.

"What's up, Kiddo?"

“Yeah, Kid. Why do you look like death?”

Patty giggled at the joke, but Kid’s horrified, frozen face showed no change. Instead, he woodenly swung his arm out to them and pried open his closed fist enough for them to see the single cuff link he held in a vice-like grip. Miserable eyes finally turned to meet Patty. "I've lost my other cuff link.” With those words, whatever strength that was keeping Kid somewhat upright vanished, and he crumbled to the floor. “I'm such a piece of garbage."

Liz stared in disbelief as Patty howled with laughter and the son of Lord Death continued his quest to become one with the bathroom tile while berating himself for being the lowest of trash.

* * *

Liz's glittery nail polish disappeared one day. Another day, Patty's entire box of sparkle crayons went missing. Stein lost a scalpel and hoped it wasn’t rattling around in one of his experiments. None of these things were big, none of them were important; they disappeared silently, mourned for only a minute before they were forgotten forever.

Until one day, something was lost that couldn’t be so easily forgotten.

* * *

The ninja sword clattered out of Black Star’s hand, blinding the pre-kishin as the sword threw the harsh sunlight back in its eyes. In its momentary blindness, victory was close, and Black Star knew Tsubaki could protect herself for the thirty seconds it would take him to defeat their opponent. She was strong; she had taken down the demon sword by herself and could keep up with his godlike prowess. Black Star raced to the pre-kishin and struck it in its chest with his soul force, destroying the last fibers that kept the pre-kishin’s corrupted soul in its decaying body.   
The maroon orb glowed out of the remains of the body, and Black Star crowed as he turned to his favorite minion: “Tsubaki! You saw me kick ass, ri—”  
Tsubaki wasn’t there.

* * *

The fight with the pre-kishin had taken place on the streets of Death City. That a pre-kishin had managed to make its way so close to Death was a worry for another day; when Black Star hadn’t been able to find Tsubaki, he had torn his way to Soul and Maka’s place, ripping the door down as he frantically conveyed that his partner was missing. The search spread to the school, with more and more people joining every minute. First Liz and Patty had joined, then they had run into Stein; Kid followed shortly after, and then Marie, Sid, and Nygus had joined the search. They ranged all over Death City, but there was no sign of Tsubaki.

Black Star was frantic. He had always been loud and casually destructive, but his panic cranked these attributes to their max. He had shouted for Tsubaki until his voice had given out, broken through walls that might be keeping him from his weapon until his shoulders were bruises layered upon bruises and a good third of the city found itself with unexpected windows. As hours passed with no sign of Tsubaki, the other searches realized they would have to regroup to determine their next plan of attack. Had Tsubaki been taken out of the city? Was she being held somewhere? What state was she in if she was in the city and neither Stein nor Maka could sense her soul?

Black Star refused to stop searching for a moment, even if the pause was to plan out a more effective way to find his missing partner. Which was why he lay unconscious at everyone’s feet as they considered their battle plans at the school, knocked out by the heaviest of Maka’s books and the weight of her concern for her friend.

Which was how he missed Tsubaki, cradling something fluffy in her hands, walking up to the group of meisters and weapons engrossed around a plan of the city.

* * *

“Hi, guys. Why is Black Star on the ground?”

As one, nine heads turned to stare at Tsubaki with wide, unblinking eyes. It was kind of terrifying, to be honest, but Tsubaki had survived an encounter with the kishin, so she simply tilted her head a bit in confusion and smiled back at her friends and teachers.

Patty was the first to break. “Tsubaki!” she screamed, running to hug her friend. “We were so worried about you when you disappeared and then you came back and we’re so glad and—ooh, what are you carrying, hunh?”

Tsubaki laughed. “Oh, this little thing?” She opened her loosely cupped hands to reveal a bird covered in Stein’s trademark stitch work. “He picked me up after I was knocked out of Black Star’s hands during our fight. Black Star defeated the pre-kishin and we were flying so I didn’t want to transform back and maybe hurt this little guy when it wasn’t necessary that I get back . . .”

“But where have you been? We’ve been so worried!” And that’s Liz, with her big sister worries unsuccessfully tucked behind her big city cool.

“I guess this little guy took me back to his nest? It’s in your lab, by the way, Stein. Also, a whole bunch of our stuff is there; I grabbed it on my way out. And it was so comfy that I just kind of took a nap there. I’m sorry for worrying you guys.”

“TSUBAKI!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!?!” All of a sudden, Tsubaki found her handful of bird and the Patty-barnacle on her arm replaced with the too tight grip of her meister. “NEVER LEAVE YOUR GOD LIKE THAT AGAIN!!”

* * *

Startled away by Black Star’s aggressive attack on his perch, the bird fluttered over to land on Stein’s shoulder. He stroked one long, pale finger down the back of the bird as he looked speculatively at the scene in front of him, where Tsubaki was distributing all the treasures she had found in the next back to their rightful owners: “Hmmm, maybe it wasn’t practical to bring a magpie back to life.”

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus  
> Black Star: Tsubaki! We’ll have to paint all your weapon forms so this doesn’t happen again. We should paint you blue so you match my hair.  
> Maka, casually flipping through a magazine: Bowerbirds steal blue things.  
> Black Star: Then...we’ll paint you black!  
> Liz, casually painting her nails: What if a goth steals her then?  
> Black Star: ...red?  
> Patty: Oooooh then you’ll look like you’ve just been murdered and are gushing blood all the time!!!
> 
> Many thanks to my best friend, who, when I begged her to send a prompt for me that I could answer in less than 1500 words, said, more or less, "Dr Stein makes something that makes something that ruins everything." She is a gem, please enjoy some light nonsense courtesy of her.


End file.
